Abbott's Reach by Ardeana Hamlin

Author:Ardeana Hamlin
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781934031575
Publisher: Islandport Press, Inc.

July 1, 1872

We enjoy fair winds and calm seas, and make good progress daily. I have commenced lessons in navigation, and each noon Madras instructs me in “shooting the sun” with the sextant, and sets me calculating our course and to figuring how many miles we have progressed each day. I seem to have a knack for it. Many evenings I pore over Bowditch to learn more. Madras says if I had been born a man I would most certainly have made my way as a shipmaster.

Lancaster Treat is the only other, besides Madras, who knows anything about navigation. It struck me, when I learned this, that Madras and the mate have upon them a very heavy burden. Were they to be felled by illness or accident, heaven forbid, the remainder of the crew would be helpless to steer toward land, and the ship would likely founder on some unforeseen rock rising out of the middle of nowhere. It is a very sobering thought, one I had never considered before.

Mother can navigate, for Father taught her on their first voyage together when I was still a baby. But she never had to use her skill, and I pray that I never will either.

Father used to say, “There are no newspapers at sea.” He missed learning of current events as they happened, even though he, like most sailors, has no great interest in government and politics. I do not miss knowing what is going on in the larger world either, for we on the Boreas are a world unto ourselves with our own small happenings.

The weather has been uncommonly good and we are making great headway. In a few days we will make Rio de Janeiro, where we will stop a few days to take on a cargo of coffee and to see the sights.

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